Student-centred learning environments for deeper learning in higher education classrooms

How can instructors in higher education design and enact student-centred learning environments that provide students with opportunities for deeper learning? In answering this research question, this EU-funded research project advances the understanding of theoretical concepts and instructional practices within a theoretical framework of a situative constructivist perspective of knowing and learning. The case study findings advance the development of a framework for designing and enacting SCLEs in higher education (SCLEs framework). The multiple case study investigated three authentic student-centred courses that belong to the curriculum of 1-year Master’s programmes offered at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA, USA. These three courses (seminars with 25 up to 38 students) were selected due to similar criteria informed by theory (good practices) and investigated over the course of one semester each. Exploring quality instructional practices thereby involved the in-depth study of regular and recurring patterns of activity that shaped the learning opportunities provided in the classrooms under study.
For data collection and analysis purposes several data sources and instruments were used to access rich empirical data that allowed for thick descriptions and interpretations in the context of single and cross case analyses: participant observations, course documents, half-standardised student evaluation surveys, semi-structured instructor and student interviews and class videotapes. The qualitative coding process was informed by categories and codes iteratively developed based on theory and data. Event sampling and grounded theory research procedures, including a constant-comparison approach, were used to identify patterns and shared practices and provide detailed insights into concrete quality features of the instructional practices enacted in these classrooms.
The empirical case study findings produced the following core components of SCLEs: (1) They embody several aligned curricular design elements and constitutive quality features; (2) Students are positioned for active participation in knowledge construction and interactions – as accountable authors, active and vocal participants, and as responsible co-designers; (3) Instructors apply adaptive instructional practices to scaffold students’ participatory processes of knowledge construction (participation in activity) and to cultivate a productive and supportive classroom community of learners over time. The study also discerned teaching and learning challenges that instructors and students experienced in the student-centred higher education classrooms that were studied.